For many years the transportation industry has been concerned with designing structural members that do not add significantly to the weight of a vehicle. At the same time, automotive applications require structural members capable of providing reinforcement to targeted portions of the vehicle such as vehicle panels. It is known to apply a layer of heat activated matrix material along with a fibrous reinforcement material to panels of automotive vehicles for structurally reinforcing the panels. However, the fibrous material that is presently used to achieve desired levels of reinforcement of the panels can be expensive. Additionally, desired levels of reinforcement may not be achieved with the presently used fibrous material unless the fabric has a sufficiently high weight. Thus, there is a need to replace the presently used fibrous material with a lower cost material that can be applied to vehicle panels along with the matrix material wherein the replacement material provides sufficient reinforcement to the panels, the matrix material or both. There is also a need to provide a fibrous material that can be applied to vehicle panels along with the matrix material wherein the fibrous material is lightweight, but continues to provide sufficient reinforcement to the panels.